Every year the masses flock to New York City, Las Vegas, London, and Paris to ring in the New Year. But why not try something different this year? And by different we don’t just mean alternate locations. Here are some of the most off-the-wall, weird, and kooky places and ways to welcome 2010 into your life.

Under the sea. If escaping from the crowds is your goal, there’s no more remote location than 1,000 leagues under the sea. No, we’re not recommending you take a submarine trip, instead take part in the almost thirty-year-old Siberian tradition at Lake Baikal where a diver plunges into a cut hole in the ice to pull a New Year tree 40 meters down to the bottom of the lake. If diving isn’t your thing you can still partake in the festivities; join the dancers on top of the ice as well as the Ice Maiden and Father Frost.

With a bunch of brats. Sure you can earn a ton of dough babysitting on New Year’s Eve but we’re not talking about those kinds of brats; we’re referring to the edible kind. Elmore, Ohio’s annual Sausage Fest celebrates New Year’s with the dropping of an 18-foot lit sausage to celebrate the city’s anniversary. You can try your hand or mouth at any of the several events, including the raw sausage toss and the sausage eating contest. This New Year’s tradition has earned the distinction as the “wurst” in the region.

Around a voodoo bonfire. The New Year is just as much about letting go of the past as it is about moving forward with the future and what better way to forgive and forget by watching your past go up in smoke? Colombians build effigies of someone who represents the old year and burn them while reading aloud the passing year’s bad luck. Cathartic? We think so.

In colored undies. In Bolivia, wearing brightly colored underpants on New Years is supposed to bring you good luck. How will you know if we’re pulling your leg? You either have to wait the 365 days to see what, if any, fortune comes to your loved ones or check for yourself.

In the round. Participating in the circular theme of a Philippines New Years is rumored to bring you prosperity; the presence of spherical items reminds celebrators of the shape of coins. So pop some grapes in your polka dot parka and coke bottle glasses, while spinning a hula-hoop and roller skating around a circular rink and you may round out 2010 as the next Bill Gates.

At a peep show. Get your mind out of the gutter. This is more like your five-year-old cousin’s type of peep show. In Bethlehem, Pennsylvania they partake in the drop-the-ball-type New Year’s traditions with a 25-pound fiberglass and illuminated Peep that drops from a crane at midnight. It’s a pretty sweet tradition for the more than 30,000 spectators who attend each year.

With the deceased. It sounds morbid, but this Chilean New Year’s tradition is actually one of the most heartfelt we’ve heard of. Since 1995 the residents of Talca, a small city in Chile, enter the gates of the local cemetery following the year’s last late-night mass to celebrate the New Year with their late loved ones. Don’t worry you won’t be alone; nearly 5,000 people now take part in this ritual.

In a nightmare fairytale. Certain cities in Japan have carried on an ancient New Year’s Eve tradition in which two or three villagers dress up like the demon Namahage. Wearing large masks and straw raincoats and carrying wooden knives and pails they scream and dance through the city asking each family about the bad behavior of their children. The family then welcomes them into their home with sake and rice cakes and the demons bless the family for the New Year with health and prosperous crops.

Around an aqua fortune teller. The Finnish people let their tins predict their New Year’s fortunes. They cast molten tins into tubs of water and interpret the shapes the tins form to indicate the course of the next year. So in Finland, if you get a heart or spherical shape you should plan for a wedding, and if you see a pig shape prepare for a lot of good food in 2010.